AFTER a difficult start in life, Mia Duffy is her father’s “mini-miracle” – and his number-one fan, as the 39-year-old singer tells Simon Button

“Here I am with my daughter Mia at her communion five years ago at a stately home in County Wicklow. I love seeing her so happy in this photograph, with me grinning like the Cheshire cat as well. Mia was eight years old at the time, and to my wife Lisa and me this day felt like a mini miracle because there was a time when we thought it might never come.

When Mia was nearly two years old, she was diagnosed with autism. At that point she was very isolated in her own little world. She was non-verbal, she wasn’t tactile and there was no eye contact. Initially we thought she might be deaf. We didn’t know a lot about autism – there wasn’t much information and very few facilities in Ireland. But when we began meeting other parents with autistic children, we learned that early intervention is essential.

We started the Irish Autism Action charity and that led to the first school being set up in Dublin specifically for children with autism. Mia responded amazingly to the education there – she remained non-verbal until she was nearly seven, but her affection, attention and concentration levels grew in all kinds of ways.

After a difficult start in life, Mia Duffy is her father’s “mini-miracle” – and his number-one fan [S MAG]

Between the four of us in the band, we’ve got nine kids now, so it’s very different from the early days

Keith Duffy

After five years she was able to attend ordinary schools, only for half an hour a week at first but eventually she was fully integrated, and she’s thrived. Mia will always have autism but she’s a much bigger part of our lives now, and it’s lovely. She spends a lot of time alone but she’s very happy in her own company so it’s not something we get too upset about.

With Boyzone being back together, I’ve been able to take Mia and her 17-year-old brother Jordan on the road, at least during school holidays and at weekends. Mia gets a huge kick out of seeing her dad in action and Jordan brings his mates along. They don’t start out thinking Boyzone are cool, but when they see all the girls at the gigs they think, ‘Hmm, this is actually a good place to be.’

Between the four of us in the band, we’ve got nine kids now, so it’s very different from the early days. It was much wilder then – we were young men living the dream and when we came off stage we’d hit the clubs for an after-show party. We wouldn’t roll back until five or six in the morning and we’d sleep until two or three in the afternoon. Now we come off stage and it’s more relaxed. We’ll have dinner in the hotel and a couple of glasses of wine.

Mia is a big Boyzone fan and she knows all the lyrics. When she’s interested in something, she has a fantastic memory. She hasn’t forgotten me losing my trunks on Splash! – she wasn’t at all happy about that but I explained to her that it wasn’t done purposely so she forgave me.”

The new Boyzone single Who We Are is out tomorrow. The album BZ20 is out now. For more on Irish Autism Action, see autismireland.ie.